Universe inches closer to making me happy, woolly mammoth division

Why do the Russians and South Koreans have all the fun? Apparently the two fun-loving countries are teaming up, according to this report, to clone a woolly mammoth. (There is no ‘try’.)

Here’s how they do it, along with some weirdness:

By replacing the nuclei of egg cells from an elephant with those taken from the mammoth’s somatic cells, embryos with mammoth DNA could be produced and planted into elephant wombs for delivery, he said.

Sooam [Biotech Research Foundation] will use an Indian elephant for its somatic cell nucleus transfer. The somatic cells are body cells, such as those of internal organs, skin, bones and blood.

“This will be a really tough job, but we believe it is possible because our institute is good at cloning animals,” Hwang In-Sung said.

South Korean experts have previously cloned animals including a cow, a cat, dogs, a pig and a wolf.

Last October Hwang Woo-Suk unveiled eight ecloned coyotes in a project sponsored by a provincial government.

Really? Eight coyotes? Pourquoi?

Other weirdness: Apparently the South Koreans cloned the first dog, which they named Snuppy. Look, guys, how hard is it to Google “Peanuts”?

I don’t think anything can possibly go wrong, but Neatorama begs to differ.

Once we get these bad boys back, it will be time to clone all the major predators that North America is missing – dire wolves, saber-tooth tigers, the American Lion. And then bring back my favorite, Eohippus.

I’m happy with all the different critters on the discovery channels….big screen HD and I don’t have to feed them or clean poop…..we have decided we have our last doggy…..we plan a month in the Baja…….feeding, medical and bording our old doggie is a real downer…..hope we out live her….she has us trained to wait on her hand and paw…..

I don’t believe this is possible. The cow, a cat, dogs, a pig and a wolf are not extinct and all have viable genetic material to work with soi cloning them is much different then a wooly mammoth. The wooly mammoth however is extinct and there is no live cells to work with nor is there any DNA that is not damaged. That leaves reconstructed DNA and that has never been done, nor do I believe it will be done.